Child Among Soldiers
by Red Nightmare14
Summary: Prompt: "Daredevil's secret identity/Matt's identity remains secret, but somehow it comes out that Daredevil was a child soldier."
1. The Public

**A/N: I saw this prompt and was like "why hasn't anyone written about this in depth before" (burning_nova has on archiveofourown but it only shows Brett's POV, and I want to do everyone). This takes place after the Defenders season 1, and Matt is still presumed dead.**

 **This is the full prompt:**

 **"** **Daredevil's secret identity/Matt's identity remains secret, but somehow to comes out that Daredevil was a child soldier. How does the public react? Does this change anything? Especially if this comes out at some point during the show's events."**

 **\+ Bonus points if this changes Foggy's view of Matt being Daredevil.**

 **\+ + Bonus points for reactions from Frank, Karen, Claire, Brett, etc.**

 **\+ + + Bonus points for Matt not getting why everyone is so worked up about it.**

* * *

It came out because of a news broadcast. People were in mourning over the loss of Daredevil, buried alive under Midland Circle, having saved New York City. Others were mourning over the loss of Matt Murdock, missing for a month now, having been kidnapped by Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Charges hadn't been pressed since Luke and Jessica had said that Matt had gone willingly with them, and cameras had shown that Matt had gone willingly, though why he did was in question. Nobody was talking.

A former victim Matt had saved a while back came on TV to talk about Daredevil. Other victims had talked about having been saved by Daredevil, though they couldn't give much information about him. He was a good fighter. He didn't look at me. He could see things before they happened. People were beginning to get an image of Daredevil as a super-powered or otherwise mystical being who could see the future. But then why didn't he see Midland Circle, others were asking. It was a mystery.

The victim was a young boy, still a teenager, of about sixteen. His story was different from everyone else's.

"He saved me from my teacher."

"What? Your teacher was abusing you?" the talk show host had asked in confusion.

The boy nodded. "My martial arts teacher. He was teaching me to be a soldier and wanted me to kill someone." The boy began to shake slightly. "I didn't want to. Teacher began to beat me, saying that I was useless and that he was going to leave me. I almost killed that guy, the mugger Teacher wanted me to kill."

The boy began to take deep breaths and the host began to look concerned. "What…what did Daredevil do?"

"He talked to me," the boy answered slowly. "After he knocked Teacher out, he talked to me about him. He…he said he had been in the same situation I had, when he was younger."

The host began to sense something big, and pushed the boy into continuing. "What did Daredevil mean when he said that he been in the same situation you had?"

The boy looked directly at the host, fear and admiration in his eyes. "He said he had been a child soldier like I had."

"He said he had been a child soldier like I had."

Understandably, the public was shocked with this revelation. Daredevil, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, had been a child soldier. A young boy forced into battle, into murder, used like a weapon. People began to dispute how a young soldier like the boy could have become Daredevil. Would he have been traumatised by his experiences? Was he mutilated by the training and that's why he covered his eyes? Questions like that dominated social media platforms for the next week, at least until people realised that they weren't going to get any answers.

Daredevil was dead. He couldn't answer their questions, no matter how much people wanted him to do so. Investigators began to go through records of known child soldiers, rescued about ten, twenty, maybe even thirty years ago, and cross-referenced them with people who had gone missing in the last month. No one matched the description. They cross-referenced the children with known super-powered people. No matches. Eventually, people had to agree that either Daredevil hadn't been a child solider, and so was just trying to comfort someone who was.

Or Daredevil had been a child soldier, and had never been rescued.

People hoped for the first option, but deep down, many knew it was the second. If there was one thing most of the people Daredevil saved could agree on, it was that he could take out pretty much anyone in seconds. Why would Daredevil try to relate to a young boy about what he had gone through if he could just beat the boy to the ground before he stabbed the mugger? There was no answer. Daredevil had been a child soldier. Daredevil had been a child soldier, and had never been rescued. If that was the case, then was Daredevil still a soldier? Or had he left before he killed someone, before he could turn back?

No one had answers. And the only person who could give them answers, was buried in a hole under a collapsed building.


	2. Foggy Nelson

_"He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Foggy had been with a client when the broadcast was on, so he didn't know about the revelation until he went home and watched it on catch-up. He made a point about watching all of the interviews of the people Matt had saved, just in case someone said that they knew who Daredevil was. So far that hadn't happened yet. But that didn't mean it couldn't happen, Foggy told himself.

In reality, he knew that he just wanted to hear someone talking about his deceased best friend in a somewhat positive light. Not saying that he was dead, but that he had been a hero. Foggy knew he was kidding himself into believing that Matt was just retired, and that one day he would have to meet up with him for drinks and give him some cases Foggy just didn't have the time to handle himself to keep him off the streets and out of the costume. (Or suit, as Matt would have said, Foggy thought to himself bitterly.)

When he finally got round to watching the interview, Foggy immediately checked social media to see what people were saying about it. It took reading several dozen comments for the information to sink into Foggy's head.

So Matt had been a child soldier. Foggy knew Matt – or at least, he liked to think he did – and Matt had mentioned being trained by a guy named Stick martial arts after coming clean about being Daredevil. He didn't specify how young he had been, but Foggy assumed that he was at least a teenager. In reality, Matt must have been trained from a much earlier age to be able to do the things he did, or had done, at night, probably from when he had first gone into the orphanage. Which means that this guy Stick (weird name aside, as this is coming from a guy called Foggy) had been training Matt in deadly combat from the age of nine.

Claire had mentioned (information passed on to her from Luke Cage) that Stick had arrived in the Chinese restaurant where Matt and the other heroes had hidden (Foggy wished that he could have teased Matt about that, but Matt wasn't here anymore so he couldn't) and had talked about having trained Matt into participating in the war, but Matt had refused to take part in it. What this 'war' was had been cleared by Danny Rand of all people as basically a bunch of undead ninjas seeking eternal youth by means of Danny's Iron Fist. The thought had nearly made Foggy laugh, which he would have done if he hadn't been so distraught. Given how skilled Matt was, and the fact that Matt had been the one to refuse joining the war as opposed to being rejected, Matt must have been training from an early age.

He really was a child soldier.

The thought changed much of what Foggy had known about Matt. What had being a child soldier done to Matt? Would he had been an ordinary guy if he hadn't been trained? He probably wouldn't have become a vigilante. His anger issues would still be there, but Foggy imagined that they could have been solved by doing boxing (not professionally, obviously, Foggy wouldn't have allowed that) like Matt's dad had done. The…bloodthirst, for a lack of a better term, had been put into Matt by an old guy under the assumption that Matt would be needed in a war against the undead. Okay, the old guy had been right, but he had ruined Matt's life because of it. If Matt had no martial arts training, then he wouldn't have had the means to go out every night and beat up people who really needed to be beaten up. He would have just been an ordinary lawyer.

An ordinary lawyer kept awake at night by the sirens and screams of people being hurt with no means of helping them.

Okay, Foggy was making himself sad again (or sadder, he supposed). What had happened had happened, and he couldn't change the past, no matter how much he wanted to. Matt was dead. He may have been a child soldier, but he was dead and therapy can't help a dead man.

Maybe Karen was right. Maybe he should seek confession (even though he wasn't religious in the slightest, but then, neither was Karen). He walked into a church, Matt's old church, he recognised, and sat down next to Karen. They had a lot to talk about.

* * *

 **A/N: Foggy's way of coping with Matt's 'death' seems to have been the 'out of sight, out of mind' strategy. At the end of 'The Defenders', we see how people are reacting to the aftermath of Midland Circle, and Foggy is continuing with his life, taking cases, being a lawyer, but he also seems to be taking spiritual guidance as he joins Karen in Father Lantom's church. I won't be doing Father Lantom's POV, since we don't see at the end of 'The Defenders' what he thought about Matt being a child soldier. But I think it would be something along the lines of "well that explains why he ignores the sanctity of life obligation in the Church teachings" (the sanctity of life is a Catholic teaching that all human life is sacred and should be protected. It's why the Catholic Church has a big no-no on abortions and euthanasia). Matt ignores this as even though he doesn't kill anyone, he is endangering his own life which can be argued to be a form of suicide attempt which is also a big no-no in the Catholic Church.**


	3. Karen Page

_"_ _He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Karen damn near broke down when those words were spoken. The horror behind those words was immense. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't tell anyone, because even though Matt was dead his secret needed to be kept. For his memory. So she went to the only place she could think of for guidance. Church.

It was Matt's old church. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The knowledge that Matt had been Catholic had played havoc in Karen's head. She knew from high school that Catholicism and vigilantism didn't go together. Sanctity of life and all that. Yet, Matt still became Daredevil, despite him having been actually religious and not the only-on-paper kind of religious. Like, going to Mass every Sunday religious.

She had always known that Matt hid secrets. When it came out that he was Daredevil, she thought she had hit the end of his horrible, horrible secrets. But no. There was one more. And Matt wasn't even around for her to talk to about it.

She hadn't…loved that Matt was Daredevil, it was more like when he told her, everything fell into place. The reason why Matt was always hurt, why he skipped out days at the office so often. It was like she now had all the pieces to the puzzle. But now she's realising that the puzzle was so much bigger than she really thought. Like when you buy a 500 piece jigsaw, but find out it's really 501 pieces. Or 502, who knew how many secrets Matt had kept in his closet. Next you'd know his mother would return as a supervillain and be all "you killed by son" and attack them.

It was scary how plausible that actually was now in Karen's world.

Father Lantom was a great comfort. (And he made a mean latte, which was a plus.) She found herself going to Church more and more often. Whenever someone at work asked she would say that she was praying for her friend's safe return, which in actuality Matt wasn't coming home. He was dead. But Karen couldn't accept that Matt was both dead and had been a soldier dying a soldier's death. It wasn't right. Matt shouldn't have had the weight of the world (or at least, Hell's Kitchen) on his back.

His life should have been simple: grow up with loving parents, go to law school, become a lawyer, open a law firm with his best friend, get married, have children, even if the last two didn't involve her. Instead, he was orphaned at a young age, grew up in an orphanage where he was trained to be a soldier from the age of nine or ten, almost lost his best friend and law firm, then died before he reached forty. Matt didn't deserve that. Because Matt was more than a love interest. He had been her friend, one of her best friends, her guardian devil. Everyone's guardian devil.

Karen found herself relying on Foggy for comfort just as much as she relied on the Church for solstice. She may have had a thing for Foggy once, he was a great guy, but right now they both just needed a friend and not a relationship to get through this. She should have taken up fighting lessons when she found out Matt was Daredevil. She no longer had her guardian devil to protect her. She needed to protect herself and everybody around her, more than she already did.

She needed to be a soldier like Matt had been.

If Matt had still been around, he wouldn't have let her. But Matt wasn't around anymore. But she was. Maybe she could convince Colleen to teach her how to fight, if nothing but to protect herself. Or maybe she could upgrade from a taser gun to an actual gun. Frank could help with that.

Foggy came in and sat down next to her, to comfort her. She was already thinking of how to get a hold of Frank Castle.

* * *

 **A/N: Karen's way of coping is through religious guidance. I imagine she speaks with Father Lantom often about Matt (seeing as Lantom also knew that Matt was Daredevil), but she doesn't become hard-core religious like Matt. More like "I need help and this is the best I got" religious. I think she would find comfort in knowing that Matt found comfort in Lantom's church.**


	4. Frank Castle

**The Amazing Crusader: All of the Defenders will have a chapter, as will Claire and Brett Mahoney (because, why not?)**

* * *

 _"_ _He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Frank is a simple guy. From being a Marine and a father to becoming a vessel for justice (at least, he'd like to think he was) he knew that people died, they died in combat like his comrades in the Marines, or they sacrificed themselves for others like Red had. When Frank first learnt of Red's death, he thought of him as another soldier lost in battle. He had seen it before. They go off to war, and never come back. At least he didn't have to see the death this time.

But when the broadcast came out, Frank began to see Red in a different light. He began to compare Red's sacrifice to his children's deaths. His children had lost their innocence by dying. Red had lost his innocence through training. He didn't know which was worse: dying before you reached adulthood, or having your childhood ripped away from you and then being expected to carry on. Frank pushed the unsettling thought away from his mind. He had a job to do.

For a few weeks, there weren't any murders committed by the Punisher. Frank was busy. He had to find out who had trained Red and 'ask' why they chose a child to be part of their war. No matter the excuse, you don't use a child to fight your battles. It took nearly a month of investigating for Frank to find out who Red's 'teacher' was, only to find out that he was already dead. A waste of time.

And yet, Frank was angry that he wasn't the one to kill the old blind man. He didn't know how the guy died – though he had a faint idea that maybe the other super-powered people in Red's life had done it, or maybe that crazy chick who was dead, then alive, then dead again – but Frank had wanted to make the guy suffer. For Red. The thought had shocked Frank, as he hadn't really considered Red to be a friend. Although it made sense, the man was somebody to look up to even if his methods of exacting justice weren't efficient enough for Frank's taste. But Red had been a guy that had, despite everything, had become a force for good rather than evil.

Frank didn't care why Red became Red, it only mattered that he had and Hell's Kitchen had been better off with him.

Now, Hell's Kitchen was being protected by a kid with a glowing hand. Oh, how things have changed. For the worse, obviously, the kid wasn't very good.

Despite not having been Red's friend, so to say, Frank still thought that Red deserved a soldier's funeral. Or at least, the vigilante did, the lawyer didn't. He had been a terrible lawyer. Frank didn't have a horse-drawn limbers and caissons or an army of fighter jets, but he could still put the United States flag on Red's 'tomb'. Oddly enough, when Frank got to the fallen Midland Circle building, there was already several offerings towards the lost vigilante. Flowers, mainly, although he could see a scarf and devil horns (that had almost made Frank crack a smile) among the flora.

Frank picked up the scarf and used it to tie his flag to a lamppost that had survived the earthquake. He wondered why the clean-up crews that seemed to jump in whenever something involving a hero or vigilante happened hadn't done their job. Red's body shouldn't be staying under that building. The police at least should be looking through the rubble for evidence for prosecuting someone. Nobody should be believing the whole 'earthquake' story. Especially since at least one prominent 'person' had died and was buried under there.

Frank picked up the devil horns. Somebody should remind the police to do their job. He set off towards Hell Kitchen's police station, horns in hand now with a note reminding the police about Daredevil. He will tell Mahoney. He was one of the few non-dirty cops Hell's Kitchen had.

* * *

 **A/N: I know we don't see Castle in 'The Defenders' but I had to add him. I think he would think of Matt as an honourable soldier and comrade who died in battle, and would treat his memory as such. He died for what had to be done, so good job. The whole 'child soldier' thing would really play on Frank's conscience as he saw Matt as a force of good who came from a force of evil. He's a father first, a soldier second. Matt was a child forced into battle and the idea of a child who 'died' for a lack of a better term would really bring back bad memories for Frank. His children died before their time, Matt's innocence died before it really should have. If Stick weren't already dead, Frank would have hunted him down and killed him, one-armed blind man or not.**


	5. Brett Mahoney

_"_ _He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Brett didn't have a reaction when he heard the broadcast. He had seen far too many child soldiers in his time and he was already preoccupied with keeping the peace with a limited police force after the death of the Devil of Hell's Kitchen (he will always call him that, not 'Daredevil' or any other stupid moniker).

There was something else he was preoccupied with as well: Matt Murdock had been missing for over a week. Some things were more important than crying over a deceased vigilante.

When Matt didn't return with Jones and Cage, Brett didn't immediately go to worse-case scenario. People disappeared all the time – he'd seen enough crying civilians in the police station to testify to that – only to turn up the next day passed out on the street drunk or in the bed of somebody who wasn't their spouse. Occasionally, somebody would be missing for up to four days, only for it to be revealed that they'd gone on an unplanned vacation with a couple of friends. This happened most often with teenagers who wanted to be seen as 'cool' or whatever.

So, yeah, Brett wasn't worried about Murdock until a week passed and he hadn't turned up half-naked with an old college friend. Something was definitely wrong, and god damn it, Brett was going to find out what it was.

He went to the only definitive leads he had; Jones and Cage, who were still mourning over Daredevil. He questioned Jones again and again about where Murdock was, but she dodged every question surprisingly efficiently (or unsurprisingly, she was a private investigator after all), until she had to be removed due to being put under an 'unreasonable amount of stress'. Brett was all for ethically interrogating people, but somebody was missing and possibly dead and he needed to be found. Finding Cage was difficult. The guy could really disappear if he wanted to. So Brett went onto Matt's friends.

He spoke with Nelson, who really ought to be concerned about his best friend's disappearance, only to find him neck-deep in his work. Drowning himself in it, really, if Brett was being honest. Foggy gave quick answers to Brett's questions and generally tried to brush Brett's interrogating off. It was impossible to question Page. She was crying as if Murdock really was dead. Which, the more Brett thought about it, could really be the case.

This was looking more and more like a murder case if there ever was one. And if it was a murder case, then Nelson and Page knew about it.

Jones and Cage were now the prime suspects in a possible murder case, at least in Brett's mind. Jones wasn't going to give Brett anything, and although Cage had been sighted from everywhere to Harlem to Brooklyn, Brett still couldn't pin him down. It took some researching, but he eventually found that the last time anybody had definitively seen Cage was just after Midland Circle in his girlfriend's apartment. The last person to see him besides said girlfriend was Franklin Nelson. Yeah, that didn't make Brett uneasy in any way.

The girlfriend's name was Claire Temple. If anybody knew where Luke Cage was, it would be her. She was the closest thing to family Cage had, so she must have kept track of him if only so that he wouldn't get thrown in prison again.

Brett set off to Claire Temple's apartment. He was getting to the bottom of this mystery. For Matt.

* * *

 **A/N: We don't Brett in 'The Defenders' but the prompt actually mentions him, so I'm adding him. Brett would have acted like Foggy (the two are more alike than they'd admit to) and buried himself in his work…if he had known Matt was Daredevil. As it is, Brett thinks Daredevil is dead and Matt is missing, so Brett would throw himself into finding Matt, probably interrogating the heck out of Jessica and Luke (as Matt's 'kidnappers') only to come up blank. Maybe Foggy or someone else would clue him into it, but I doubt it. Brett would not stop until Matt is found (if only so Foggy would start buying his mother cigars again). Daredevil being a child soldier doesn't matter too much to him. The guy's dead, nothing he can do about it. Maybe Brett would try to find who taught Daredevil to bring him to justice, but he would obviously fail. (I'm noticing these are becoming more 'reactions to Matt/Daredevil's death' than 'reactions to Matt/Daredevil being a child soldier' but what can you do. Inspiration hits, you run with it.)**


	6. Claire Temple

**A/N: With the release of** ** _Daredevil_** **season 3, this fic has now officially become an AU! I'm not going to include anything from season 3 (not least because I haven't watched it), so with that, I hope you still enjoy this now non-canonical fic!**

* * *

 _"_ _He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Claire was in her apartment with Luke when the broadcast aired. There was silence for about ten minutes before Luke said "Well, that explains Matt." Claire simply nodded. It unfortunately made sense. Blind men don't just stumble upon martial arts skills, he trains. And somebody Matt's age would have had to have been training for years to get as good as he was. But now, all that training was useless. Matt was dead. There wasn't anything she, even as Matt's unofficial nurse, could do.

But she could help others.

After months (or was it years?) of patching up vigilantes who had no one else to go to, Claire got on the phone with Danny Rand about her new idea, a hospital for vigilantes. A night hospital. Rand was almost overjoyed about the idea. After a few weeks of being repeatedly hurt every night, he was tired of going to Claire directly in the middle of the night with his injuries. One night he had walked in after Luke and Claire had had a night out…yeah, that wasn't awkward at all…

Claire gave Danny a list of medical supplies she would need with a notice saying that the supplies would have to be bought after a suitable clinic was found. The supplies were comparatively easy to get compared to the clinic.

Eventually, it was Claire's friend from the Metro Hospital, Linda Carter, who found a suitable place for the clinic in Chinatown. It was smaller than what Claire would have preferred and needed some refurbishment from having previously been a takeaway, but was otherwise perfect for what Claire had in mind.

The next day, Rand Industries purchased a derelict takeaway restaurant on Orchard Street.

It was decided that although Claire would be the main practitioner, Linda would also be a nurse there. But first, the place needed some work done to it. Claire sent in Luke with strict instructions on how the clinic should be prepared. Eventually, Luke was basically living in the in-progress clinic due to a police officer asking Claire about Luke kidnapping Matt.

At least the clinic will be done quickly.

Focusing on the clinic gave Claire something to focus on besides Matt. Matt, the first vigilante Claire took care of. Matt, the first vigilante Claire fell in love with. Matt, the child blinded at a young age. Matt, the orphan trained for a war. Matt, the hero buried alive. It hurt, it hurt a lot, for Claire to think about Matt in any way. Her focus was now on the clinic, on hiding Luke, on healing vigilantes, anything other than Matt.

Claire knew this wasn't healthy. But she didn't feel like she had a choice. People were relying on her, people who were still alive. As a nurse, it was her main priority was helping those who could be helped. And there was so many vigilantes out there who didn't have anyone to look after them if they were injured.

But soon, Claire will be in charge of helping them. Claire, and Linda, and maybe Linda's friend Christine if Linda could convince her. They will be the saviours of so many heroes out there.

But first she had to get the clinic ready. And then she had to get Luke out of the clinic and away from police eyes. Claire couldn't believe that this was her life. Trying to keep her vigilante boyfriend away from the police. Her parents would be disappointed in her.

* * *

 **A/N: Claire would have known that Matt would die someday fighting some guy. He gets injured so often that it would be unreasonable to assume that Claire would think that he would somehow survive. Let's face it, if Luke can get hurt on the day-to-day (the guy with BULLET-PROOF SKIN) then Matt, an ordinary guy, has no chance surviving half a decade with his lifestyle. She would mourn, she would try to help others, and if the writers ever want to include the Night Nurse at any point in the MCU, then this is their chance. Claire has seen what can happen when superheroes try to fight crime. They get hurt, and they die. She can help them as much as she can, but she's one person. Matt's death could be the catalyst to her founding the Night Hospital (with Danny funding it, the guy is the one with the money and the immense guilt). Matt being a child soldier would make sense to Claire. A blind guy doesn't just stumble upon martial arts skills, he trains. She just wouldn't approve of the way those skills are used.**


	7. Luke Cage

_"_ _He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Luke would like to say that he was devastated as Claire and Jessica about Matt's death, but the sad thing was that he wasn't because he had never had a chance to get to know Matt. Claire had known Matt for years, since Matt first became a vigilante, and Matt had been Jessica's lawyer (however bad he was), so obviously they had known him better. Heck, even Danny was closer to Matt than Luke was! Luke just wished that could have known Matt better, but you can't change the past. No matter how much you wish you could…

Right now, the most pressing things on Luke's mind were, in order, staying away from the police (because apparently he was the prime suspect in Matt's 'murder'), comforting Claire (who seemed to be drowning herself in preparing for the clinic), comforting Jessica (who was drowning herself in alcohol, though at least now she was getting her investigating firm back up), comforting Danny (who was drowning himself in the clinic and being a vigilante, man, what's with people and drowning themselves in work?), and setting up the clinic.

Ironic that the guy with skin as tough as a rock is now the rock for everyone else.

Luke hated being trapped in the clinic all day, and he obviously couldn't go out as a vigilante at night and draw attention to himself, so he found himself alternating between drinking with Jessica and going to the rubble of Midland Circle since he wasn't allowed in Claire's apartment in case the policeman came back.

He hated seeing the rubble of Midland Circle. That underneath all of that was a man who had sacrificed everything for everyone but himself. Often, Luke would be kept up at night with the idea that if he had been the one to stay behind and distract the crazy chick then everyone could still be alive (except for the crazy chick). Yeah, Jessica could say painful things when she was drunk.

When he was the broadcast, the hatred that burned within Luke was strong. He hated people being used, similar to how he was, but he had no outlet. Was he drowning himself too? In the work for the clinic like Claire was?

No. He has to be strong for everyone. He knew Matt the least, so he has to be the rock for those who knew him the most.

Still, out of drinking with Jessica and going to Midland, Luke found himself at Midland the most. Maybe this was his way of mourning? He was probably drawing attention to himself. Criminals always return to the scene of the crime, after all. Even if he wasn't the one to kill Matt in the end.

It hurt to see the rubble with nothing there to remember Matt with. At least Luke could fix that. He took off his red scarf that Claire had gotten him for the cold weather and wrapped it around a still-standing lamppost. At least it was something.

He couldn't stay. People were staring, and Jessica had sent him a text message that she was drinking at that new bar she'd found (Jane? Joan? Something beginning with 'j') and somebody had to keep an eye on her.

* * *

 **A/N: Luke didn't know Matt well enough to be able to properly mourn him. He's lost people he loved before, so Matt doesn't come close to the person he mourns the most. He mainly there for Claire, Jessica and Danny, being their rock when they need him. He would be the one to start the unofficial memorial in the rubble of Midland Circle for Daredevil as a kind of penance. He would feel guilty about not being the one to stay behind and distract Elektra (as the guy with bullet-proof skin, he would have been the one most likely to survive a building falling on top of him, but he still would have died. His skin may be bullet-proof, but he can still be damaged by blunt-force trauma). He would be angry at Matt being a child soldier, and would probably join Frank among those I would classify as "gonna hunt down someone and make 'em pay", only he knows that Stick is the one who trained Matt and Stick's dead so he can't 'make Stick pay' for what he did.**


	8. Jessica Jones

_"He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Jessica was in a drunken stupor when the broadcast had aired which kind of impeded her ability to act accordingly to the news. She was going to have to replace the coffee table at some point. Trish had visited, as she had been doing every day since 'that day', but hadn't asked questions. A drunken, super powered woman with PTSD was not somebody you'd want to be on the bad side of, Trish could probably speak from experience given Jessica's reaction to her offer to talk about 'that day' on her talk show.

Fucking Stick. That fucking guy. A kid, blind and recently lost his dad, in what world would he be a good soldier? (This world, most likely.) And Malcolm questioned why she was drinking even harder than before? Matt didn't deserved this (did any of them?), he deserved a, okay, not a quiet life as a lawyer but a less dangerous one. Something without the daily threat of death handing over his head.

No, bad Jessica, stop talking about Matt like he's still alive.

Where's that beer when you need it?

It took two months before Jessica could think properly enough to not drink three times her weight in alcohol every day (her bank account was getting low). Some low-level crime boss had been taking advantage of Daredevil's…absence…to get a foothold in Hell's Kitchen and Danny's inexperience was showing. Not everybody (in fact, hardly anybody) is impressed with the magic glowing hand, kid.

Why couldn't the magic ninja go to Luke? (She knew why, she'd been drinking with Luke at Josie's bar for the past month.) Jessica is not suited for the infiltration side of vigilantism (Daredevil would have), she's suited for smashing and punching, not wheeling information out of known crime bosses. Still, better for the ninja to have back up from the girl with super strength if he can't have the bullet-proof man (what is her life?).

Surprisingly, it went well. The crime boss is still at large but a couple of lackeys have been scared off. Hopefully nothing bad will happen to them (Jessica knows they'll end up dead in the river within a day, but that's future Jessica's problem, current Jessica wants another beer).

Why she invited Danny for a drink at Josie's she doesn't know. The guy isn't even buying the weakest beer there and the water he's drinking isn't filtered so Jessica knows he shouldn't be drinking it. What's his tolerance if he isn't even taking up her offer of having sip of hers?

Still, it's better to have company here than alone in her apartment. She needs a distraction. Maybe she should set up Alias Investigations again. Maybe she will. God knows people need it.

* * *

 **A/N: Jessica would try to put everything behind her and wouldn't want to talk about Midland Circle. Trish actually offers to tell everyone on her talk show, but Jessica refuses. Matt's death would entice her to start up Alias Investigations again as a kind of "live life to fullest before it's over" philosophy. She would continue drinking. Only this time, she drinks at Josie's (Claire mentioned it was Matt's favourite bar, so Jessica would drink there to honour Matt's memory). Luke would join her every so often. Matt being a child soldier would make her sick with the injustice of it. She would see it as Stick taking advantage of a recently-blinded, psychologically-damaged boy and moulding him into a warrior. That in itself would cause her to drink more, and Trish and Malcolm would question why this is, as she didn't know Daredevil that much. But she did know Matt Murdock, and he was an ordinary guy taken advantage of, and that's bad enough.**


	9. Danny Rand

**Umbra Drachen: Matt was confirmed in the MCU to be born in the 1980s, so he would be in the 30s during** ** _Daredevil_** **, which takes place in the 2010s. My best guess as to why Matt is older is that he and Foggy spent a few years in Landman and Zack. To get into law school, you already need a bachelor's degree in a discipline, which would be three or four years depending on if Matt went full-time or part-time, so he would be 21-22 when he met Foggy in law school. Law school is another three or four years (once again, depending on whether full-time or part-time) so Matt, freshly graduated, would be 24-26. Add a few years at Landman and Zack's, plus however long Season 1 and Season 2 are, and Matt is in his 30s.**

* * *

 _"He said he had been a child soldier like I had."_

Danny knew child soldiers. He was one. The monks had trained him harshly and to Danny that was for the best. He was the Iron Fist even though he had to admit that there were plenty of people that were probably better candidates than him.

(Even Daredevil had been a better candidate than him. Was Danny jealous of Daredevil? He didn't know.)

When Danny saw the broadcast, he respected Daredevil's final decision. The man was a soldier like Danny was. A soldier to the end. A soldier who protected his people. Now that duty had fallen to Danny.

But was he good enough? Daredevil had been a legend, a myth, a devil in the night, protecting but in ways that nobody could understand. A man who could see in the dark (or at least people assumed), could sense a bullet coming from three blocks away. A man like that must be a devil, and Matt was, or had been, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. A title that Danny considered to be fitting for the man behind the mask.

The Iron Fist was legend as well. But Danny was just Danny. A kid who didn't even know how to act correctly around people. An heir without a mentor. He was less of an eccentric billionaire and more of a naïve child. Did Matt feel this way, or did he just melt into the role of protector, switching between the lawyer and the Devil when needed? Could Danny do the same? Or was there something about Daredevil that just made him hard to live up to.

Colleen was his saviour in all of this. She encouraged him in her own way to socialise and become acquainted with a more American lifestyle. Though, maybe she didn't mean drinking with Jessica and helping Luke escape the law, but Danny had his own take on her vague suggestion to get out more.

Honestly, even with Colleen's support and his escapism in the forms of Jessica and Luke's distractions, Danny still couldn't break the feeling that Daredevil would be…disappointed in him somehow. Maybe part of this was leftover guilt from failing to return to K'un-Lun before the entranceway closed, but the feeling just wouldn't leave him.

(Did the people of K'un-Lun feel this way when Danny failed to return? The sense of abandonment, a shirking of responsibility? They must have. Danny had left and never came back. It was his fault they were unprotected.)

Is this all Danny's way of coping? He was honouring a fallen soldier, a comrade in a crusade, by protecting his city. But maybe Danny needed this as well. If he couldn't protect K'un-Lun, the people he had abandoned, then he could protect Daredevil's city and Daredevil's people. It was, after all, his last wish…

* * *

 **A/N: Danny would try to honour Daredevil the best way he knew how: by taking care of his city. It's only when the news breaks about Matt being a child soldier that he re-thinks why Matt's final words to him were "take care of my city". Matt was a soldier to the end, thinking of the people he sworn to protect rather than himself. Danny would respect that as he was also technically a child soldier. That doesn't mean it's okay, Danny was well taken care of with the monks, which Matt hadn't been with Stick. He would, however, question how Matt found the courage to refuse to take part in the war, and why Danny himself couldn't find that same courage. He would compare himself to Matt and try to live up to what he perceives to be Matt's standards. Colleen is needed for him to not wear himself thin and eventually collapse, but at least Danny found purpose through Matt's final wish.**


	10. Matt Murdock

When Matt woke up, it was months after the broadcast. He never heard it until someone blocks away began blaring it out on replay. Matt made a detour to listen and didn't like what he heard.

He thought that the kid would have forgotten what he's said. That trauma or maybe shock would have been more distracting than the poorly thought out words of his savour. Matt listened to the entire interview, and then listened to the couple watching the broadcast.

"Poor guy. Being taken advantage of like that."

"I know. Probably never thought of anything else. Feels wrong for him to have taken up a mask out of, I dunno, duty? Apathy? I dunno."

Matt hadn't stayed to listen any further. He ignored the couple's wonderings until he was on the other side of Hell's Kitchen.

He didn't understand. Why did they care? They shouldn't care about the choices somebody they didn't know made. And a child soldier? Hardly. Matt hadn't been a child since his dad died. No, he became an adult before that. When he'd lost his sight. When he gained his hearing.

The night Matt had decided to become Daredevil was the first night he stayed awake listening to the cries and sirens of Hell's Kitchen. Stick just gave him the training to carry out what he was going to do anyway.

Daredevil came about from a wish to help people who couldn't help themselves. It wasn't duty or apathy that birthed the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. It was the cries from the Kitchen's people who needed a guardian, be it angel or Devil.

Matt continued on his way. The broadcast came out months ago. What were the chances that anybody besides that couple still cared about a 'dead' vigilante?

* * *

 **A/N: As the prompt says, once he wakes up, Matt wouldn't get why everybody is so worked up about him having been a child soldier (even if he doesn't call himself that). Yes, he was a child, yes, you could call him a soldier, but really what drove him wasn't Stick's teachings, but the cries and sirens of Hell's Kitchen. Matt became a guardian devil for the people of his city because they needed him, not because some training forced him into choosing to be Daredevil, but because he wanted to help people who couldn't help themselves. (And also anger issues, which is actually Stick's fault for nurturing it, but Matt doesn't think of himself as having anger issues, so…take that as you will…)**

 **Sorry for this last chapter being very short. Matt's thoughts aren't too important to the prompt, it's just an add-on.**


End file.
